Hip

there we go. thanks for joining me on this ride, everyone — it's been fun, illuminating, and excruciatingly long!! holy shit i'm finally free!!! see you all on the next one, whatever that is

• (00:00) we immediately start off with a very clever parallel to the beginning of ep1! we've gone from a ray of light illuminating a dark room through a gap in the curtains... to the great outdoors, completely covered in blindingly white snow. the first shot even fades from white to accentuate that

• (01:10) mm, big fan of mihari not just having a reaction here at all, but it being very understated as well

• (03:31) a profile shot of mahiro struggling to move to the right while monologuing internally? sure reminds me of the jog scene in ep1, though it's arguable whether it's supposed to be a callback or not

• (03:53) you know, i can't help but wonder... in japan, is it normal for a bunch of high and middle schoolers to go on a trip like this all by themselves? lol

• (04:31) momiji wearing a girly yukata... yeahhh honestly i've been trending towards the trans guy read here not actually being intended. i'll keep using he/him pronouns for him because headcanons and all, but i don't think i'll get on anyone's case about it like i do for mahiro

• (04:45) wow, this background sure is detailed (noticed that mahiro's yukata is greenish-blue and pink) oh my god are you fucking shitting me now. also miyo's is pink and yellow, which aren't the exact colors but damn if they didn't make my mind instantly go there and oh her hair highlights are orange too lmao

• (05:05) yeah yeah it's a little closer to green than blue, you can see that more clearly in these other shots. the correct shade of blue would be... the one in momiji's yukata......

• (05:30) "Even his mannerisms have gotten more feminine. Hm? I wonder if that means anything." sorry show but you cannot make me believe that mihari doesn't have at least some idea of what's been going on

• (06:22) pretty basic stuff at this point, but mahiro taking this long to realize she'd be in the hot spring naked with everyone else is pretty funny lol. and it contrasts with episode 2!

• (06:43) hmm... you know, this has been the case since... episode 2 i think? but it became clearer over time, and it's especially clear in this scene, that... mahiro seems to legitimately not want to perv on the others? which is indeed how these sorts of scenes go in other genderswap series, i think ("oh no, i don't want to perv on my girl friends but i just can't avoid ittttt"), BUT damn if it doesn't remind me of all the times i went out of my way to suppress my instinct to act as a dude, huh...?? and i mean like, in general, when i was getting used to thinking of myself as a woman. i wonder if that means anyth— lmao ok i can't

• (06:56) miyo adorably stepping away with an embarrassed look on her face... we haven't seen her and kaede interact, but that'd probably be a dangerous situation, huh

• (07:43) mahiro is a bit far from the others in the bath... and miyo is the first to notice that...

• (07:56) "She's so sheepish. Must be puberty." well... i mean...

• (08:47) mahiro goes even further away, anddddddd miyo is also the one who goes after her AND they both bring up that it's embarrassing being with the others, so ok like. i thought momimahi was supposed to be the official ship

• (10:04) oh man, so it happened at not just the worst possible time, but at THE Worst Possible Time

• (10:19) ah, i didn't notice it before, but their yukatas all shared colors, huh

• (11:22) the rare joke centered on the fact mahiro (and mihari)'s overreaction is, in fact, completely appropriate, playing into the absurdity of how the medicine works

• (11:42) "Looks like the drug has finally started to wear off. Perhaps the hot spring played a role as well." is. is this a ranma reference

• (12:06) aww, and the "this is The Worst Possible Time for this to happen!!" jokes are followed by this poignant "this is the worst possible time for this to happen..." moment, because yeah, setting aside how silly it is that mahiro's dick just came back all of a sudden, this does suck

• (12:20) ...and that's followed by another joke when it turns out mihari already has more of the drug on her, just in case lmao. and it might seem counterintuitive to undercut that moment of mahiro's sadness like this, but it actually makes perfect sense. after all, "oh no, how will mahiro get more of the drug all the way out here?!" is pretty bad drama...

• (12:36) ...but "will mahiro choose to remain a girl?", on the other hand? now we're talking

• (12:43) and we don't want to pop that bubble right away, so of course the girls come back just in time to prevent mahiro from deciding

• (13:36) ohhh look at this! look at how this scene is framed like any of the other fun-slice-of-life ones... yet is extremely conspicuously missing the usual fun music, making it just feel kinda wrong

• (14:21) and this layout that separates mahiro from the rest of the group, with mihari as the only one who's close to her......

• (14:39) ohhhh man, everything this little pause says about what mahiro's thinking right now... which is to say, that she's speedrunning working out her gender identity after putting it off for so long lmao. oh and, you know, momiji is the one calling for her here, which i'm sure is a coincidence

• (15:08) the music finally comes back — and it's the track from the silent christmas scene

• (15:44) I THOUGHT MOMIMAHI WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE OFFICIAL SHIP

• (16:04) what a clever advancement of the show's visual language it was to transfer the positive connotations of light (as established in ep1) to the white snow, and now to mahiro's white breath!! let me grab a screencap of this (while framestepping through this shot i realize that mahiro's breath comes out in the shape of a butterfly) GOD FUCKING DAMMIT

• (16:21) hopefully i don't need to point out that what the show is saying here is not "the others wouldn't like mahiro anymore if she went back to being a guy"

• (16:36) to the folks who did the composite for these crucial scenes: you're killing it keep it up

• (16:41) light once again, but this time it's that of the moon (which of course is associated with femininity in certain traditions)

• (17:19) GUH THIS SMILE... a smile that truly comes from the bottom of mahiro's heart......

• (17:57) "It feels like we're on a field trip, doesn't it?" "Oh, right. I guess you missed out on those, skipping grades. We should do this again sometime." well, if that doesn't sum it all up

• and then we get the conclusion to the "oh shit this is the worst possible time" jokes, mahiro looking forward to their next trip, being tsundere on the train, a cute little montage for the credits... and we're done!

yeah, that climax was good! really good!! so good, in fact, that my only complaint is that... there wasn't enough of it?? together, the buildup to it in the room and the waterfall scene were probably around the length of the jogging scene in ep1, but... maaaan i sure would've appreciated stewing in mahiro's thoughts there for longer... like, make them leaving the inn part of the credits montage, move the resolution with mihari on the train to either around the waterfall scene or to after the credits, and spend the now-free screentime further communicating mahiro's anxiety? i think that could've worked... though i can't help but remember hearing that they apparently already extended those dramatic scenes compared to what the manga was like, so i can hardly complain too much.

i also think it would've been nice if mahiro finally fully accepted being a girl and said as much to mihari...... buuuuuuuuuut that was never going to happen lol. as i mentioned in the previous post, there's that thing where, the moment mahiro starts fully identifying as a girl, this will stop being a genderswap story... so i assume nekotofu is saving that one for when the series ends for real. and OH BOY that moment is almost certainly gonna be good as hell because it'll almost certainly involve mahiro telling mihari to stop calling her "onii-chan" and mihari having to accept that she doesn't have an older brother anymore!! maybe after she figures out how to make the effects of the drug permanent or something.

that's onimai, then!!! it was ultimately more uneven than i would've liked, but still — when it's good, it's good in ways no other works are, and when it's really good there's absolutely nothing else that even comes close. really hope it gets a second season!!